2015 Volkswagen Golf

The latest Golf goes aggressive but still looks suitably upscale.

Well, folks, here it is, after months of renderings and spy photos: the 2015 Volkswagen Golf hatchback, revealed to the world. Volkswagen debuted the car previously at an event in Berlin and has now shown the car at the 2012 Paris auto show .

The seventh-generation Golf is based on VW’s new MQB modular front-drive architecture—shared with Audi’s new A3—and is 2.2 inches longer, 0.5 inch wider, and 1.1 inches lower than the outgoing model. Volkswagen also stretched the wheelbase by 2.3 inches, and as you can see from the photos, these changes allow the latest Golf to shed some of its previously upright and squared-off look. According to VW, the new Golf is up to 220 pounds lighter than the old car, courtesy of the expanded use of high-strength steel.

Although the new Golf's cosmetic changes fall squarely into the category of evolutionary, its tastefully restrained styling appears upscale, handsome, and fresh. Up front, the headlights are reshaped and resemble the units on the latest U.S.-spec Passat sedan, and the lower fascia gets more-expensive-looking detailing. The Golf’s rear end appears lower and wider than before, thanks largely to the newly pointy and slimmed-down taillights that extend farther toward the car’s center line on the rear hatch. We especially like the C-pillars’ strong boomerang shape, which gives the back end a pert, athletic demeanor. Cooler still, the fuel-door cutout is angled so that it lines up with the body cut-lines for the rear bumper and rear-passenger doors that form the lower half of the C-pillars’ boomerang outline.

The new car's interior marks a more noticeable break from that of the current Golf, with an expressive dashboard design that cants the instrument panel toward the driver and adds visual pizazz from piano-black trim. There’s also a new touch-screen infotainment system (the standard setup in the U.S. will be a 5.8-inch unit) and accompanying color instrument-cluster display that appear to be a major upgrade over the outgoing Golf’s dated-looking dashboard touch-screen and dot-matrix gauge-cluster info screen. A new flatish-bottom steering wheel rounds out the major updates to the Golf’s already-posh cabin appointments.

Here in the U.S., the Golf will offer three turbocharged engine choices: A 1.8-liter four-cylinder, a 2.0-liter four for the sportier GTI model, and a diesel-fed 2.0-liter four for the Golf TDI. The 1.8-liter makes a healthy 170 horsepower and 184 lb-ft of torque, figures nearly identical to those of the outgoing Golf’s naturally aspirated five-cylinder that it replaces. As for the GTI’s 2.0-liter four, VW is still working on final output figures, but expects it will make around 210 ponies and 258 lb-ft of torque. Finally, the American TDI model gets Volkswagen’s latest 2.0-liter diesel, a member of the new EA288 engine family, which makes 150 horses and 236 lb-ft of torque—10 more ponies (and the same amount of torque) than the current Golf TDI.

Overseas, the Golf engine range will include two diesels and two turbocharged gas-fueled engines. The diesel outputs are 105 hp for the smaller 1.6-liter and 150 hp for the top-dog 2.0-liter. The base gas engine offers up a tiny 1.2 liters of displacement and 85 hp; the uplevel 1.4-liter motor puts out 140 hp and features cylinder deactivation that shuts down two cylinders in low-load situations. (The 1.4-liter belongs to VW’s new EA211 engine family, while the Euro diesels also are members of the new EA288 diesel clan.) A five-speed manual is standard with the 1.6-liter diesel and 1.2-liter gas four, whereas the 2.0-liter diesel and the 1.4-liter turbo have six-speed sticks. A seven-speed DSG dual-clutch automatic is optional with the 1.6-liter diesel and 1.4-liter gas; the 2.0-liter diesel can be had with a six-speed DSG. The base 1.2-liter gas engine is stick shift only.